BElieve in YOUrself

This is a short story about a teenage girl and self confidence with her body image.
I hope this story can help everyone who reads it.

Believe in

Yourself

Our
reflections hurt.

Painful
stabs in her self-esteem bring it to an all-time low. Her stomach bulges, and she feels as if she
has let herself down.

She is young, beautiful, and kind. If only she could lose
the weight, at least ten pounds to start with; twenty pounds eventually. Then
she could be pretty again.

At least she
would believe that she was pretty again.

Staring,
scrutinizing herself in the mirror. All her friends have flat stomachs. She doesn’t.
She tries to work out every day. She tries and tries but nothing seems to work.

Ever.

She hates
herself, so she shoves her pebble colored baggy sweatshirt over the bulge that
is her belly, attempting to forget that she is not pretty like most teenage
girls.

Walking out of her room she remembers an important little detail in her
day. She has to go to school.

School- The
place she loves. Libraries, learning, unlimited opportunities, and a constant
reminder of the unquestionable number of girls that are better than her, all girls that can step away from the
chocolate like it’s their second nature. Something that she has struggled to do
for far too long.

Stepping out
the door and avoiding people so that no one will notice her skipping breakfast.

But
the only thing she craves is excess amounts of food. Its ok, she tells herself.
There was nothing healthy to eat anyway.

The ride to school takes forever and
she is not particularly eager to be reminded that she has no self-control
unlike all her friends.

She is a failure.

There is
more than one thing weighing on her mind as she passes countless couples in the
halls. But she is not worthy comparatively.

At least that’s what she tells
herself. Closing her locker an unforgettable face lays behind it waiting.

“Hey there.”
He says charming as always.

“Hi.” She
answers in a small voice. Pulling the sweater down to cover as many
imperfections as possible. But he picks up on the movement.

“What are
you doing?” He asks

“What do you
mean.”

“You know
what I mean.”

“I don’t
know just a habit by now, I guess.” She says shyly wondering why in the world
he would take one second out of his day to talk to a shy fat girl.

“It’s not a
very good habit.” He stated.

“Excuse me?”
she said temper rising.

“Because why would you want to cover up
something so beautiful and perfect?”

She stood there speechless.

He touched her chin ever so slightly
as to raise her head. A clear sign of how she viewed herself. Her posture
lifted following the path of her head, and he walked away.

She was dazed going into class, and
the next class, and the next one. she just couldn’t get it out of her head that
somebody could see her like she was one of the flat-stomached flawless girls
that surrounded her.

But he didn’t seem to see them. No, he only saw her
beauty. Her unquenchable beauty.

Going home that day she had a new way
of seeing things. A new way of seeing herself.

Instead of hating every
reflection, she embraced every sight of herself. Whether it be in the mirror or
the window pane in a shopping mall.

She saw herself not in a good light with
rose colored glasses. But in the light of something much, much better.

Reality.

The next morning, she did not skip breakfast,
she limited herself to a small amount of chocolate instead of none or way too
much. She loved the person that starred back in the morning right before she
left for school. So, she didn’t wear the over-sized sweaters to cover up
insecurities.

She accepted them.

She always had the potential for
accepting herself. she was just stuck in her self-consciousness and he pulled
the confidence right out of her. But it was there all the while.

Each day one small step was taken.
The next day she put on a tiger colored, curve hugging, tank top with a lace up
front. It was her. Not her low self-esteem. But it signified her personality.
Fun, confident, smart, bubbly, and sexy.

She walked down those halls head held
high. Let me just say heads turned and they kept turning. It wasn’t that nobody
thought she wasn’t good enough this entire time. It’s that she kept herself
hidden and reserved.

Could she lose any weight? Yes. Did
that insinuate she was ugly or unworthy of anything? No.

Over time her love for wanting to be
healthy took over and she did not want a flat stomach or perfect body.

She only
wanted a healthy lifestyle and with being healthy came her reward of a flat
belly and wonderful body. But not because she skipped meals, but because she
allowed herself to be loved and nourished in all the right ways.

Even though she did get that flat tummy, it was not her true
reward.

Her real reward was the ability for total self-love and acceptance on
the deepest level within.

Her confidence grew
every day. It grew into the diamond it is, perfect, shining, and unbreakable.
Nothing can bring her down she’s unstoppable.

My Review

Reviews

It's a good story, and the storytelling was elegant. There were no grammatical errors, which is impressive considering the fact that this is your first short story.
The narration was a bit repetitive in the middle. Also, check your writing once for capitalization errors.
Finally, try combining sentences. For instance, "School. The place she loved." can be written as "School - the place she loved". Too many periods in your story might make it sound a bit long and boring.
Other than these, your story was marvelous. Keep up the effort, and keep practising regularly. I'm looking forward to read more of your work soon.

Posted 1 Year Ago

Posted 1 Year Ago

Well done Adalaide.. a story that will be easily understood..is just the right length and has a perfect message for those with no self esteem. As mentioned by Katherine..fix the formatting and indentation..also 'starring' should be staring..i had to read those lines a couple of times..other than that..good job! I hope to see more of your writing..

Posted 1 Year Ago

This is a problem in society. Society makes girls think they have to look a certain way in order to be considered beautiful. I think this being written can maybe encourage girl to love themselves. Something written that people can relate to is wonderful.